How Much Should I Pay to Buy a Domain Name from an Owner? FAQs.

How much should I pay to buy a domain name from an owner?

The cost of buying a domain name from the owner of that domain name depends on quite a few factors. Buying a domain name from an owner can cost anywhere between $50 to $1000s.

I know that’s a very general estimate, but the value and estimating just how much you should pay to buy a domain depends on several factors, these include:

• How old the domain name is.
• Does the domain name have any built up legacy links?
• Does the domain name have any Google Penalties?
• How much traffic does the domain name currently get (if it’s an active website)?
• What does the domain name include, i.e. the website, it’s content, images, theme, plugins, etc. That is if you’re buying more than just the “Domain Name”. Maybe the owner wants to sell the entire site, if it’s active. (See below).

What do all those factors mean in practice? Let’s use a real life example:

I was in the market to buy a new domain name and I found one that I liked. It was called: ” {CompanyName}.com “. It was active, had no Google penalties and wasn’t listed as “banned” by Google. So far so good!

The owner didn’t want to sell just the domain name, he wanted to sell the entire site. That was fair enough with me, because I didn’t want to start from scratch either!

But this raises another question: “How much is the entire website worth?” Maybe it’s not worth very much? Maybe it’s a low traffic website that gets hardly any organic search traffic per month? Maybe it isn’t worth very much?

The owner wanted $10,000 to sell the website. At first, I was willing to pay that for this site, because to me it looked like a great catch!

But after looking at the traffic stats, I learned that the domain name URL itself was actually getting more than twice as much traffic as the entire website.

That’s including all other traffic sources, not just organic/direct.

So, the domain name would have to be worth about $5,000 if I wanted to buy it at that point in time. Now I know what you’re thinking… “But the entire website was listed for $10,000! That means I can make a killing by buying the whole website for just an additional $5,000!”

However, something just didn’t seem right at the time. All I knew was that the domain name had more traffic than the entire site.

As it turned out, there were a few reasons why this owner wanted to sell the entire website and not just the domain name…

– CompanyName is a common term that is used by all kinds of companies. So, I would essentially be buying a “Company Name” and not just a “domain name”.

– The website didn’t have much content on it. It was just a copy/paste job of prewritten corporate literature with no real blog content.

It also had some customizations done to the theme which looks like they paid a pretty penny for on top of that.

So they wanted to recoup some of those initial web development costs. This was on top of buying an actual “Company Name” and not just a “domain name”. Therefore, the original owner was being unreasonable from their point of view.

They were basically under the impression that they were selling an actual “Company”. Though, with no other physical assets.

So, as you can see, I wasn’t looking to buy a “Business”, “Company” or even a “Corporate Brand”, but just a domain.

And so on… In the end, I passed. Afterall, I was only interested in the domain name, not an entire “Company” especially without any other valuable assets, except “the Domain Name”. Why pay an additional $5,000 for someone else’s vision of what they thought it was worth?

So, what you would have paid to buy the domain name, “CompanyName.com”, is basically up to you, but I think it’s important to remember that not all domains are created equally!

Sometimes you can get caught in the weeds that the original domain name owner created. So you could be essentially buying their problems as well.

That’s why it’s also important to keep focussed on your original intent, which for me, was to buy just the domain name for $5,000.

Which from the beginning the owner just wasn’t willing to sell it for.

Now, if that website had been generating a consistent monthly income for the owner that made the valuation more logical and I felt that I could improve upon it and take it to the next level, that’s one thing.

But that just wasn’t the case with this domain name. The domain name owner just wanted to unload some of his unrealistic expectations onto me.

So it was better to just walk away.

How much does it cost to permanently buy a domain name?

You can’t buy a domain name permanently. That’s right, you can’t buy a domain name for good.

If you want to own the domain name forever, then you’ll need to renew it periodically or else someone else will get their hands on it.

A domain name registration period is between one to ten years depending on the registrar. But it always needs to be renewed. Right now domain registrations and renewals are between $8-$16 depending on the registrar.

Why are some domain names so expensive?

There are a number of factors that affect the price of a domain name as I mentioned above. You also need to consider the extent to which a certain domain name is unique or at least unusual among all those registered on the net.

This characteristic directly also affects its value if it happens to correspond with a company’s commercial interests or not. The more exceptional and less common names are, the more expensive they tend to be.

The most important factors seem to be the domain name’s age, the amount of links it has to it and if there are any Google penalties or bans associated with it.

How to buy a domain name that is taken?

Well, I suppose you could ask nicely and hope they sell it to you.

But, if we’re talking about an actual domain name. The kind of thing you’d want to own, then this strategy will not work for you. It’s just not going to happen.

And any SEO Gurus that tell you otherwise are foolhardy at best.

So, if you really want to own a domain name (and it happens that the name you want has already been registered) what should you do?

How about checking whether someone else is interested in owning that same domain name? If they are, then this gives you two options: buy out that party or get into some internet brand-name bidding. If the domain name is valuable enough, then you can probably just buy it outright.

But what if that doesn’t work? What’s to be done if the other party isn’t looking for a deal or perhaps is not interested in selling?

Then you have to go where all serious domain bidders go: Afternic.com.

And if the other party is a domain investor or portfolio owner then you have to figure out just how much that person valued that domain in their portfolio and bid accordingly.

This strategy has the added benefit of potentially attracting a different kind of buyer: a domain name owner looking to sell it rather than hang on to it for an indefinite period of time.

And if that doesn’t work: well, then: just wait. Wait until the owner decides to sell or give it up for free and offer to buy it then, but at a huge discount compared to what you would have paid before.

How much does it cost to buy a domain name from the owner? Summary.

The good news is that domain registration prices are fairly cheap, so it’s not a big deal to buy one from a domain name owner.

You can find some great deals on domains if you do your research and know when the best time for buying them will be.

When deciding how much you should pay to buy a domain, think about whether there could be any potential conflicts down the line (e.g., trademark infringement).

However, in the end, the cost of buying a domain name from the owner is determined by many factors, even how long you’re willing to wait.

If you want it now, then expect to pay more than if someone else has already bought it and wants to sell it back for what they paid or less.

Ultimately, your patience could be rewarded with an affordable buy!